After Ameiko leaves the Dragon for the Kaijitsu Manor, Takeshi fills the group in about the sword letter and of how this information was up until then unknown to both himself and, gathering from her reaction, Ameiko, as well.

Kalistrine makes her way back to the caravan camp and her soft caravan
bunk.

In the morning Walthus Proudstump wakes up and has some eggs and bacon at the Dragon with the group and says, "Twas an honor, ranging with y'all, I shall be taking care of Megus' estate with Koya at the Sheriff's, hopefully, he will be able to assist me in squaring it away so I do not have to make a run to Magnimar."

Well, I've been in a shipwreck before and it kind of makes me a bit sad to see what has happened here. Should we not move towards the cave or should stay here the night and go to the cave tommorrow? says Walthus with a bit of melancholy.

You step into what was once an alchemical laboratory, the
equipment in this room has fallen into decay. Ancient
chemical spills create weird stains and colorful crystalline
growths amid the partially collapsed workbenches. Old
Megus’ skeleton, confirmed by Walthus'sobs and tears, is still dressed in tattered clothes, also lies
amongst the workbenches. An examination of the witch’s
remains quickly reveals that some hideous transformation
or deformity has disfigured her skeleton—the skull seems
half melted and weirdly elongated in the face, one arm
looks more like a bird’s talon, and the ribs have grown
long spurs of bone that protrude both into and out of the
rib cage. It was this last deformity, brought on by Megus’s
final experiment, that killed her.

Walthus, with tears running down his face, wraps the bones in a shroud made from a blanket.

I suggest you search the whole building for useful items, tell me when you are finished then I will bury Megus. She was a bit of a strange woman but good-hearted, if you got to know her. Lina, would you help me in the proper rites?

I've seen Skitterfoot talk once before methinks but it might could have been spell induced... twas it Megus' spell or his... hmmm can't say i remembers... while squinting seeing if he could remember.... We could check her lab...

Walthus looks up and shakes his head in between bites of his porkchop, where did the pig come from, anyway?

He then takes a peak at the fan/map combo and says, Well, boys and girls, if we take off first thing tomorrow morning, we should be at her house by noon, unless you wanted to look at the shipwreck on the map that is about a hour from here by foot. On the other hand Megus has a boat that would make exploring the swamp quicker...

Proudstump walks over to Kalistrine and takes a look at the fan and says,

Aha, well thats a might crude but that looks like a map of two shipwrecks and a cave... hmm I know where these places be... One is rather close, the other two we should prolly see Old Megus, she done got a row boat and its be easier to get there that way... I do suggest we sleep here though and we can either go to the close Shipwreck first light or to Megus'

Off of the dead goblin chief, you find a mwk composite longbow with 5 regular arrows and 5 arrows that look a bit different, 2 potions, skyrocket fireworks, and a chain shirt. Off of the Goblin Lt. you find a mwk battleaxe, a jar of flies, a pouch of something, and a hide armor from a serpent. Of the others you find 50 gp, 20 sp, and 3 cp, a necklace of Elfen ears and a toad's foot. Tell me when and which houses you want to search

Taking a second to let out a whistle, Wooooooeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! Well I would think so, the sheriff has absolutely no love for goblins, methinks he lost a daughter during the unpleasantness um few years back.... Gold is gold.. since these be out of cage they have to be close to adulthood...

Liu's and Proudstump's arrows fly and hit their targets and kill them instantly. Liu's strikes her goblin's heart and he dies and Proudstump gets him in the grape striking the plank behind him, his limp body hanging from the large plank leaning on the palisade.

Proudstump after hearing Liu Na's educated guess scratches his head with his right hand and thinks for awhile and then says, "Why don't you and I reconnoiter the situation? And maybe bring one or two down...What do you think?"

Takeshi moves out of the way and Lina is able to cast cure light wounds on Jorland which leaves him at -2 hit points. Proudstump makes his way to Jorland and starts administering first aid 1d20 + 7 ⇒ (14) + 7 = 21 and stops the bleeding and stabilizes him.

Jorland has yet to search the mound so just plug that in when you get the chance, cool.

Proudstump takes out his knife and cuts off the ear of the burnt Soggy River Monster and gives it to the person who collects ears. "If I know the sheriff, you'll be needing proof."

After everyone is ready to depart, Proudstump leads you back to the New Fish Trail and then continues back to the Lost Coast Road. The trip along the Lost Coast Road is quick and uneventful. The hike continues to the southeast. The road circles around the edge of the swamp. It's not long before another trail heads off the main road and Walthus turns you down this one.

"This is the Old Fish Trail," Walthus tells you. "Although once upon a time it was just called the Fish Trail, but that was before there was a new one. It used to go all the way to Sog's Bay, and people used it for exactly what it was named for. They would go to the bay and fish there. But then the Licktoads put up their village right on the trail halfway to the bay. So fishermen found the New Fish Trail and now use that. Of course, even that one doesn't get much use any more, since the goblin threat has spread across the whole marsh.

"The Old Fish Trail has fallen completely out of use past the goblin village and has been swallowed up by the marsh now. However, the goblins still use this part of the trail, so it's still in good shape. It does mean we're going to have to be careful from here on. They'll have spies along it, and those spies will be hard to spot. Goblins are very good at hiding. They're pretty lousy at finding, but we'll be pretty obvious. If you have any defensive measures, you might want to think about preparing them. It'll take about an hour or so for us to reach the village, not counting any encounters we have with goblins or other swamp denizens."

Walthus steps up and says, "I have an idea, you can burn the mound and I prepare my oil flask, when I hear noise from inside I throw it in, or when you give me the signal."

I have Walthus mention this for three reasons, one. He is a third level ranger and pretty smart, two, I get to explore a couple rules of the game which I never seen before and three, I think it would be awesome if it works. Of course the party can choose something else to do

During breakfast, Walthus pipes up, "Ok, well as I see it we have two places to go, we can go to the Goblin camp or see Old Megus. Megus is a really strange lady but she knows the marsh much better than me and may know where the Soggy River Monster is, plus she has a rowboat that she could let us borrow which would make traipsin through the marsh that much quicker." irrelevant of where you want to go, at the beginning it starts in the same direction. Just rp where you want to go first.

After breakfast, everyone rucks up and gets ready for the journey. The group leaves after Walthus feeds his snakes and starts off in the same direction you came from. Walthus leads from the front because he knows the terrain better. He takes the journey seriously and has his longbow knocked and ready for action.

Please give me a marching order or should I assume its the same as before?

You make much better time than before because Walthus doesn't stop as much trying to get his bearings and his general familiarity with the terrain. A little bit after you cross the first bridge from before he stops the group with a clenched fist in the air.
He whispers, "There is a carcass of an alligator just of the trail to the right. It may be the doing of the Soggy River Monster."

You all sleep in Proudstump's guest rooms for the evening on beds and wake to the smell of eggs, cilantro and sausage frying from the kitchen. Proudstump looks much better than he did the day before and you can see that twinkle in the eye that halflings get when they are excited. In the corner you that he has his rucksack and his weapons ready to go. Once everyone sits down, he serves them their breakfast.

After eating some more and having the whisky, Old Megus, she is a very strange lady, haven't seen her in six months, but yeah I know how to get there. Shoot, even though I am the warden, this is her swamp. I've only been living here for five years, she has been living her for almost twenty."

After being touched, he gives Lina a smile and chuckles a bit as halflings often do. He pats her on the back and says, "You can do it."

After getting his healing, "Much abliged, ma'am! Before I cook dinner, I have something for y'all as a gift, it is a cloak of resistance +1 you can see the healing has given him back a little sugar in his step and he sprints back to his safe room and returns with the cloak and hands it to Lina. she just happens to be the closest

Walthus then makes his way to the kitchen, sees Jorland hacking up the stalker. I'll be making dinner, would you like to join? I hunted grouse this morning and I will be grilling up some gator shashlik!"

"Why yes my friend, it looks as though he got you, too. I was feeding my snakes this morning and I came back inside and this stalker attacked me. We fought and I cut him really bad but then he had me pinned as I see he did to you but luckily for me he was bitten by one of my snakes which allowed me the opportunity to get into my safe room," he pauses to get a breath...

As you make your way up the staircase to the second floor, you two door in front of you and an open door with the halfling standing in the doorway, he looks as if he is using the doorframe to prop himself up.

When he sees the group, he smiles widely but grimmaces in pain "Welcome, Welcome, I am the warden of Brinestump Marsh, if you'd like I can make you dinner, it looks as if it already getting dark, hmmmm, what day is it?"

I am Walthus Proudstu--mp, this is my home, who are you? You are not that beast's friends, are ye? He seems to be making a lot of racket upstairs mostly bouncing into things.
"You killed the Stalker, friends come up stairs please! I have been injured by thaaaaatttt thingy"